Mr Vijayan, 77, was rushed to a hospital immediately but passed away. He had parted ways with the CPI(M) a few years ago after alleging that key party leaders took bribes in form of foreign donations.

Last week, Vijayan, a mutti-faceted personality, who was the editor of the CPM's 'Deshabhimani' weekly for several years, had been acquitted in a defamation case by the Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate Court.

The defamation case was brought against him by the Left-leaning Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad president K Pappootty, against an article published in the May-June, 2003 issue of the magazine 'Padhom', edited by Vijayan.

The article had termed the Parishad as ''betrayers of the sovereign rights of people and agents of imperialist expansionism and alleged that it received huge bribes on the pretext of donations.